Fire Island Cupcakes

This summer we were lucky enough to spend two lazy weeks in Fair Harbor, Fire Island, off the coast of Long Island. The best thing about it is that there's nothing to do, and the worst thing about it is there's nothing to do - except play at the beach, swim in the bay, eat ice cream at least twice a day, and have a lemonade stand!

I knew in advance that our kids wanted to do the stand and I was volunteered to make cupcakes. Our rental house had little or no supplies so I bought everything with me - measured out the dry ingredients in ziplock bags, packed muffin tins, even brought a little baggie of vanilla bean paste (the best stuff ever, as far as I'm concerned).

They turned out great, even with using a basic handheld mixer, instead of my monster KitchenAid. The kids made $40 bucks which included lots of tips, and my friend Keri and I got to have a three course meal of leftover buttercream!

Cupcakes and lemonade in action

Willie's Cakes

Today, meaning yesterday, I had every intention of posting, but now it's 12:31am and I missed posting something on the 1 year anniversary of this blog. But seeing as I'm still awake and it's still Sept. 11 somewhere, I think it counts.

I've been making cakes for everyone in Willie's family for a while (see Lindsay's cake, Lindsay's dad's cake, there was also a Lindsay's grandma's cake, but I was lazy and didn't take a photo). It was about time that Willie had a birthday and wanted a cake. But she ended up with two! How's that for a birthday treat?

She called me to order a mint chocolate cake - chocolate cake with chocolate mint buttercream. Said to decorate it however I wanted. She usually is the cake pickerupper (?) in the family, but said since it was her birthday, she'd get someone else to do it.

Two days later her husband called and ordered another surprise cake, red velvet, for a dinner they were having with friends the same night (choc. cake was for the family celebration at home).

Decided to do similar colors for both cakes and wanted to play around a little with simple gumpaste flowers. The handwriting on the chocolate cake admittedly isn't my best work (actually looks like it was written by a 99 yr old with the shakes) but I love how all the colors work together.

red velvet

chocolate mint